Printer-friendly Version

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 16, 2003

SCHUMER BRINGS TOP US TRANSPORTATION SAFETY OFFICIAL ASA HUTCHINSON TO NEW YORK CITY TO EXAMINE SECURITY IN PENN STATION TUNNELS

$100 million had been invested in security measures including new sensors to detectchemical, biological, and radioactive agents and traces of bomb materials

Schumer: Funds have been well spent so far but more needs to be done

Officials will work together to make sure that tunnels are made even safer

US Senator Charles E. Schumer brought the US Department of Homeland Security's Undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security Asa Hutchinson to New York's Pennsylvania Station today to see first-hand the $100 million in security improvements that have been implemented since September 11, 2001 and determine what else can be done to improve rail tunnel security under the nation's busiest train station.

"Half a million people come through Penn Station every day, and each one is far better protected today against bombs, chemical weapons, biological agents, and radioactive devices than they were on September 10, 2001," Schumer said. "We can't ever rest easy because there's always more to do, but Amtrak and the Department of Homeland Security have brought us light-years ahead of where we were just 21 months ago."

Schumer and Hutchinson conducted an inspection tour in, under, and around Penn Station and examined the Rail Security Program which includes increased policing, new K-9 bomb teams, sensors to detect chemical, biological, and radioactive materials, Explosive Trace Detection devices that scan the air for traces of bomb materials, bomb-resistant trash cans, intrusion alarms, and vehicle barricades.

Schumer said that despite the remarkable progress so far, more needs to be done. For this reason, some of the $100 million will also go toward Amtrak's Life Safety Program to construct three major air ventilation structures for Penn Station, install a fire standpipe system, and complete other projects to improve the infrastructure beneath the station over the next five years. This work will be done in partnership with the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit.

"Amtrak and the Administration made a commitment to the people of New York for Penn Station and they are keeping that commitment. There's a lot more we need to do to improve these tunnels including completing three new air ventilation systems, but I am confident we will be able to work with the Administration and get the job done."

Pennsylvania Station is owned and maintained by Amtrak, and the complex is also the home of the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit terminals in New York City. The three railroads operate nearly 850 passenger trains a day at Penn serving over 500,000 passengers daily, including 40 percent of Amtrak's passengers nationwide.

The 100,000 Homeland Security Officials that Undersecretary Hutchinson oversees work in the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and in divisions of the Department of Homeland Security that formerly existed as separate government agencies: the US Customs Service which was previously part of the Department of Treasury; the enforcement division of the Immigration and Naturalization Service which was previously part of the Department of Justice; the Federal Protective Service which was previously part of the General Services Administration; the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center which was previously part of the Department of Treasury and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service which was previously part of the Department of Agriculture.

Undersecretary Hutchinson is a former US Attorney who went to the Department of Homeland Security after serving as the Administrator of the US Drug Enforcement Administration for two years. Undersecretary Hutchinson is also a three-term former Member of Congress, who overlapped in the House of Representatives with then-Representative Schumer from 1997 to 1999. They served there together on the House Judiciary Committee.

###